


All the little things

by TotoroPirate



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Love, Westallen Gift Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-31
Updated: 2015-03-31
Packaged: 2018-03-20 14:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3654114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TotoroPirate/pseuds/TotoroPirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story of how Joe watched Iris and Barry grow, and grow closer through the years. A small ficlet written for the Westallen Gift Exchange. I did some art too and it's posted at the end of the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the little things

The first time Joe noticed, Barry was eleven. It had been almost three months since Barry had come to live with them, and it was the fifth time Joe had to drag Barry out of Iron Heights penitentiary. He had skipped school again just to try and visit his dad at the prison again. The drive back home had been silent on Joe’s end, while Barry just sat in the passenger seat with his arms crossed, silently crying.

By the time they got home, Barry’s eyes and nose were red and puffy, and he was not even looking at Joe, no matter how many times he tried to ask if Barry wanted to get anything to eat. Barry locked himself in his room and refused to come out to have lunch. Joe thought he’d eventually come out when he got hungry, but he never did. Later that night, when Joe knocked on his door to ask Barry if he wanted to have dinner, he didn’t even respond.

Joe was almost certain Barry was going to go to sleep without eating a thing. But when Iris came home after spending the afternoon at one of her friends’ house, it didn’t take long before Barry came out, finally emerging from his room just so he could sit with her and eat dinner together.

Joe didn’t quite understand it at the time, but after seeing Barry sitting with Iris and trying to smile as she talked to him about her day, he was relieved. Barry and Iris had always been friends since preschool, and Joe was never more grateful that their bond was helping Barry cope with everything he was going through. Especially because most times he felt like he was powerless to really reach out and really help Barry.

The second time was a couple of months later when Barry and Iris were still in the fifth grade. Iris was crying inconsolably because she’d lost her mother’s wedding band during their school trip to the zoo. Joe tried to comfort her as best as he could, even though he knew there was nothing he could really do for his daughter. The ring was lost and it was highly unlikely that they would ever see it again. Even Iris knew that. However, that didn’t stop Barry from looking for it incessantly every day during the next week. Each day after school Barry insisted on searching for the ring, never losing hope that they could actually find it. Barry asked Joe to take them back to the zoo so he could look for it with his flashlight and magnifying glass. Barry also printed a photo of the ring from one of Iris’ mother’s portraits and used it to ask the zoo keepers and security guards about it.

The days passed and it soon became obvious that they wouldn’t be able to find it, but at least Iris felt a little better because as Barry said: Wherever her mother was, she knew that it hadn’t been her fault, and that she knew Iris hadn’t given up on her ring. But most importantly, that even without the ring, Iris’ mother could always be close to her heart.

Joe didn’t completely understand how someone as young as Barry was able to console his daughter the way he had, but once again, he was grateful.

The third time, it was at Iris and Barry’s Junior Prom. It was a happy occasion, especially for Iris, who was going with Michael Harren, one of the senior basketball players that had asked her out. Barry on the other hand, didn’t have a date for the prom. No matter how many times Iris and Joe asked him if he was going to ask someone to go, Barry never said a thing. He just smiled and shrugged it off, saying he didn’t really want to go anyway.

Joe wasn’t planning on making a big deal out of it, and supported Barry in anything he wanted to do, even if it meant not going to the dance, but Iris simply refused to let Barry stay home. She demanded that he go, even if he didn’t have a date, and even threatened to cancel her own date if Barry didn’t oblige. In the end, Barry went with Iris and they ended up having a great time. Joe was sure that young Michael Harren was less than thrilled about having to share his date, but Iris did not seem to mind at all. As always, Barry’s happiness mattered to her even more than her highly expected prom date.

Days later, looking at the pictures of the dance, Joe noticed the way Barry’s eyes always seemed to be on his daughter, and then he understood. Barry and Iris loved each other, though Joe could see that Barry loved Iris in a different way. A deeper way that went beyond what his daughter could probably see at the time.

As the years passed, Joe started to see Barry and Iris’ dynamic in a completely different light. To be honest, he lost count of how many times he noticed Barry’s love for Iris, because it was sometimes even just the tiny little things no one else saw that told Joe just how much Barry loved his daughter. As they grew up, graduated high school and went away to different colleges, the bond of their friendship never wavered. In fact as time passed, it only appear to become stronger. Barry was there for Iris when she went away to college and struggled with the loneliness of being abroad, speaking on the phone every day and encouraging her to continue and never give up. And Iris was there for Barry during all the months he was in his coma, visiting him every day and talking to him even though none of them were sure Barry could really hear her anyway.

It was evident that Iris and Barry cared deeply about each other no matter what happened in their lives. And Joe often wondered if Iris would ever reciprocate Barry’s feelings, or if maybe Barry would just eventually outgrow them if she never did. Especially when Eddie came along, and he not only was Iris’ first formal boyfriend, but actually things between them got serious enough that they ended up moving in together.

No matter how much it killed Barry to see Iris with Eddie, he never interfered.  Barry never spoke bad about Eddie, he never wished them anything but happiness, he never did anything but be supportive of them.

Joe saw how Barry tried his best to move on and not dwell on his feelings for Iris as she was moving along with her life, even though he knew how much it must have hurt him to do so. Iris’ happiness and wellbeing were always Barry’s priority, it was what mattered to him the most. More than his own feelings or his own happiness, Barry just wanted Iris to be alright.

Barry and Iris loved and supported each other through thick and thin. And even as more years passed, their friendship survived the tests of time and the strains of disbelief and heartache. Barry was supportive of Iris when she and Eddie broke up, trying his best to remain unbiased even if his feelings towards Eddie had become strained over the years because of his secret identity as the flash and Eddie’s ill will against him. Keeping his Flash identity a secret from Iris had been difficult for Barry, but it had become second nature after the first year. That didn’t mean that when the truth finally came out, things did not change. Iris felt betrayed and cheated, and everything had been so messy and complicated that for once Joe thought that it could finally be the thing that set Iris and Barry apart.

Luckily, it wasn’t. As the months passed by, Iris and Barry found their way back to each other. It was something that just couldn’t be helped, Joe guessed. The bond of their friendship was so strong, that it was just a matter of time until it brought them back together again. This time though, with no secrets and nothing to stand between them, it didn’t take long until Iris realised she loved Barry just as much as he loved her.

It was all the little things, like long talks on the phone, staying up late talking for hours, sharing christmases, birthdays and special occasions together. It was the sum of all those things shared over the years that made them who they were. At the end of the day, Iris and Barry’s love story had been almost twenty years in the making. So when the day came when Iris finally decided to take a chance on Barry, it was like coming home, and all Joe could say was that “It was about time!”

 


End file.
